Dr. Nicholas Chiorazzi received his medical degree from Georgetown University. He completed internal medicine training and rheumatology and allergy-clinical immunology training in the Cornell Cooperating Hospitals. He was also an immunology research fellow at Harvard Medical School in the laboratory of Baruj Benacerraf and at The Rockefeller University in the laboratory of Henry G. Kunkel.

In 1987, Dr. Chiorazzi was appointed chief of the then-new Division of Rheumatology & Allergy-Clinical Immunology of North Shore University Hospital. In 2000, he was appointed the first director and CEO of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. He is currently a professor of medicine and molecular medicine at the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine.

He has been elected to American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians and was the recipient of the Binet-Rai Medal for Excellence in CLL Research.

Research Focus

Dr. Chiorazzi’s laboratory studies the activation and maturation of B-lymphocytes in health and disease, in particular chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Dr. Chiorazzi and his colleagues have demonstrated the following; CLL cells are responsive to signals from the internal microenvironment, in particular those delivered by the B-cell antigen receptor (BCR), leading to leukemic cell proliferation and maturation or death; BCR-induced signals are likely delivered by common self antigens and are mediated through sets of BCRs of remarkably similar amino acid structure; patients with CLL segregate into two subgroups based on BCR structure that differ dramatically in clinical outcome; CLL cells proliferate and die in vivo at rates higher than originally appreciated.

These findings have led to the view that (auto)antigen drive is a promoting factor in the development and evolution of CLL and have been a pivotal in refining patient prognosis.